Today’s News 30th May 2020

• Coronavirus Propaganda Mimics War Propaganda
  Coronavirus Propaganda Mimics War Propaganda
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 23:50

  Authored by Jeff Deist via The Mises Institute,

  In the period leading up to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration and its media accomplices waged a relentless propaganda campaign to win political support for what turned out to be one of the most disastrous foreign policy mistakes in American history.

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  Nearly two decades later, with perhaps a million dead Iraqis and thousands of dead American soldiers, we are still paying for that mistake. 

  Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were key players behind the propaganda—which we can define as purposeful use of information and misinformation to manipulate public opinion in favor of state action. Iraq and its president Saddam Hussein were the ostensible focus, but their greater goal was to make the case for a broader and open-ended “War on Terror.”  ​

  So they created a narrative using a mélange of half-truths, faintly plausible fabrications, and outright lies:

  • Iraq and the nefarious Saddam Hussein were “behind,” i.e., backing, the Saudi terrorists responsible for 9-11 attacks on the US;

  • Hussein and his government were stockpiling yellowcake uranium in an effort to develop nuclear capability;

  • Hussein was connected with al-Qaeda 

  • Iran was lurking in the background as a state sponsor of terrorism, coordinating and facilitating attacks against the US in coordination with Hamas;

  • Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and other terror groups were working against the US across the Middle East in some kind of murky but coordinated effort;

  • We have to “fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here”;

  • The Iraqis would welcome our troops as liberators.

  And so forth.

  But the propaganda “worked” in the most meaningful sense: Congress voted nearly 3–1 in favor of military action against Iraq, and Gallup showed 72 percent of Americans supporting the invasion as it commenced in 2003. Media outlets across the spectrum such as the Washington Post cheered the war. National Review dutifully did its part, labeling Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Justin Raimondo, Lew Rockwell, and other outspoken opponents of the invasion as “unpatriotic conservatives.”

  Tragically, the American people never placed the burden of proof squarely with the war cheerleaders to justify their absolutely crazed effort to remake the Middle East. In hindsight, this is obvious, but at the time propaganda did its job. Disinformation is part and parcel of the fog of war.

  What will hindsight make clear about our reaction to COVID-19 propaganda? Will we regret shutting down the economy as much as we ought to regret invading Iraq?

  The cast of characters is different, of course: Trump, desperately seeking “wartime president” status; Dr. Anthony Fauci; epidemiologist Neil Ferguson; state governors such as Cuomo, Whitmer, and Newsom; and a host of media acolytes just itching to force a new normal down our throats. Like the Iraq War architects, they use COVID-19 as justification to advance a preexisting agenda, namely, greater state control over our lives and our economy. Yet because too many Americans remain stubbornly attached to the old normal, a propaganda campaign is required.

  So we are faced with a blizzard of new “facts” almost every day, most of which turn out to be only mildly true, extremely dubious, or plainly false:

  • The virus aerosolizes and floats around, so we all need to be six feet apart (But why not twenty feet? Why not one mile?);

  • The virus lives on surfaces everywhere, for days;

  • Asymptomatic people can spread it unknowingly;

  • Antibodies may or may not develop naturally;

  • People may become infected more than once;

  • Young healthy people are at great risk not only themselves, but also pose a risk to their elderly family members;

  • Thin, permeable paper masks somehow prevent microscopic viral spores from being inhaled or exhaled toward others;

  • People are safer inside;

  • The rate of new infected “cases” in the first few weeks of the virus reaching America would continue or even grow exponentially; 

  • Social distancing and quarantines do indeed “save” lives;

  • Testing is key (But what if an individual visits a crowded grocery an hour after testing negative?);

  • A second wave of infections is nigh; and 

  • Our personal and work lives cannot continue without a vaccine, which, by the way, may be two years away.

  Again, much of this is not true and not even intended to be true—but rather to influence public behavior and opinions. And again, the overwhelming burden of proof should lie squarely with those advocating a lockdown of society, who would risk a modern Great Depression in response to a simple virus.

  How much damage will the lockdown cause? Economics aside, the sheer toll of this self-inflicted wound will be a matter for historians to document. That toll includes all the things Americans would have done without the shutdown in their personal and professional lives, representing a diminution of life itself. Can that be measured, or distilled into numerical terms? Probably not, but this group of researchers and academics argues that we have already suffered more than one million “lost years of life” due to the ravages of unemployment, missed healthcare, and general malaise.

  By the same token, how do we measure the blood and treasure lost in Iraq? How much PTSD will soldiers suffer? How many billions of dollars in future VA medical care will be required? How many children will grow up without fathers? And how many millions of lives are forever shattered in that cobbled-together political artifice in the Middle East?

  Propaganda kills, but it also works. Politicians of all stripes will benefit from the coronavirus; the American people will suffer. Perversely, one of the worst COVID propagandists—the aforementioned  Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York—yesterday rang the bell as the New York Stock Exchange reopened to floor trading. He now admits that the models were wrong and that his lockdown did nothing to prevent the Empire State from suffering the highest per capita deaths from COVID. Like the architects of the Iraq War, he belongs on a criminal docket. But thanks to propaganda, he is hailed as presidential.

  

• World's Largest All-Electric Passenger Aircraft Makes Maiden Flight
  World’s Largest All-Electric Passenger Aircraft Makes Maiden Flight
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 23:30

  The world’s largest all-electric-powered utility aircraft conducted its maiden flight on Thursday, reported Flight Global. 

  The electric-powered Cessna 208B Caravan is a utility aircraft produced by Cessna Aircraft Company, has been traditionally used for flight training to recreation, commuter airlines to VIP transport, cargo carriers, humanitarian missions, and Special Forces operations. 

  Flight Global said propulsion company Magnix and AeroTEC, an engineering and flight test specialist, swapped out the plane’s Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop engine with an all-electric propulsion system, that can produce 750hp. After the successful test flight, the plane is now considered the largest all-electric passenger aircraft ever to fly.

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  Magnix and AeroTEC believe economically-feasible all-electric commercial flights are just around the corner and could transform regional commuting. Electric planes have been limited for many years because of lagging battery technology — however, that has all changed. 

  Magnix chief executive Roei Ganzarski said the plane is called “eCaravan” and took off from Grant County International airport, located in the central business district of Moses Lake in Grant County, Washington, on Thursday. He said the plane circled the airfield for 30 minutes before landing. The test pilot described the maiden flight as “flawless.” 

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  Ganzarski said the successful test flight was a significant milestone for the aviation industry. 

  Watch: Electric-powered Cessna Grand Caravan makes maiden flight on May 28 

  The current configuration of eCaravan has passenger capacity between 4-5 with a flight range of 100 miles. Ganzarski said the plane is the process of receiving FAA certificates by 4Q21. He said by then, battery technology should advance some more, and it would mean increased range or large seating capacity to at least nine. 

  He said the eCaravan is designed for low-cost travel between cities, and eventually, be able to travel up to 500 miles that would be used for regional flights. A 100-mile flight cost about $6 in electric, opposed to a conventional Cessna 208B using jet fuel, would cost a few hundred dollars with today’s fuel rates. 

  Ganzarski said the plane’s batteries need about 30-40 minutes of charging before a 30-minute flight. 

  He said, “there is way more interest at this point than we anticipated,” while referring to potential customers. 

  Ganzarski’s plane is not the only one in the race for all-electric flight. We noted, Eviation Aircraft unveiled an electric plane at the Paris Airshow last year. 

  

• This Is A Full Societal Breakdown
  This Is A Full Societal Breakdown
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 23:10

  Authored by MN Gordon via EconomicPrism.com,

  This week’s standard refrain was one of pessimism.  The quick return to economic health mantra that was popular not long ago has disappeared faster than you can say lickety-split.  But there was one notable outlier this week.  In fact, one leading economist stepped forward with assurances that renewed prosperity lays just ahead.

  On Wednesday, Nobel prize economist Paul Krugman looked up from his liquidity trap graphs long enough to tell Noah Smith at Bloomberg that the 1979-82 economic slump “would suggest fast recovery once the virus is contained.  I don’t see the case for a multiyear depression.”

  This sounds great and all.  A fast recovery would end a lot of financial pain and suffering.  Still, we seem to think the damage that’s been done by the government lockdown will have long-term consequences.

  The glorious ascent of the concave parabola of government spending and debt won’t go away.  The budget deficit has grown by leaps and bounds – nearly $3 trillion – over the last four months.  The national debt – currently over $25.6 trillion – has overtaken the economy.

  What’s more, the deficit spending’s being financed by Fed credit that’s created out of thin air.  Again, there will be lasting consequences for this type of depravity.

  Presently, the economy and financial system is in grave trouble.  This is not a cyclical depression, despite what Krugman says.  This is a full societal breakdown.  And the authorities can’t stop it.

  Not since Nero clipped coins in 64 A.D. and fiddled as Rome burned has there been such an intolerable collection of lowlifes in imperial office.  No plans are off limit: Mass surveillance.  Permanent wars.  Market intervention.  Trade wars.  Greater government control.  You name it.

  Yet these tired solutions are the source of the problems…

  Solutions and Fixes

  The authorities may not be able to stop the depression.  But they can try; it’s in their interest to do so.  Their efforts, however, will serve to make a greater mess of things.

  You see, the economy can and will recover from the mounting depression.  Though it may take a decade or more to do so.  Moreover, the intensity and duration of the depression is dependent on the level of government mismanagement.  Thus far, the mismanagement has been remarkable.

  The lockdown may have helped flatten the curve.  But what did it really solve?  The virus is still on the loose.  People are still getting infected.  Yet, thanks to the lockdown, the economy has also been destroyed.

  From one solution precipitated a new problem.  And the fix to that problem caused another problem.  And on and on…

  Economists at the University of Chicago estimate that more than two-thirds of the workers on unemployment insurance are making more in jobless benefits than they did at work.  Some are even hauling in two to three times as much.

  Weekly unemployment payments of $600 granted by CARES Act have been a great boon for many unemployed workers.  These weekly payments also provide a government incentive not to work.  This, in effect, delays economic recovery.

  The government’s solution to the consequences of the government’s lockdown has become part of the problem.  But not to worry.  The government stands ready with a new solution to fix the problem of its making.

  Take Senator Rob Portman, for instance.  He’s proposing a $450 weekly ‘return-to-work bonus.’  The purpose of the proposal is to incentivize people to return to work by giving them free money.  Larry Kudlow thinks Portman has a good idea.  According to Kudlow, this is something the White House is “looking at very carefully.”

  What else are the White House and the central planners looking at?  What other messes will their solutions make?  Several come to mind…

  This is a Full Societal Breakdown

  Unlike the Great Depression, where there were mass bank failures and a collapse in the money supply, the Fed is engaging in mass money printing.  The Fed’s balance sheet was at $4 trillion when Fed Chair Jay Powell rung in the New Year.  Now it’s over $7 trillion…and is headed to $10 trillion by the end of the year.

  These dollar debasement policies produce an endless assortment of economic distortions.  As money loses value, there can be a wide range of outcomes.  Prices change and fluctuate in strange and unpredictable ways depending on people’s mass psychology.

  Will financial assets inflate like they did following the 2008-09 bailouts?  Or, because free money is being delivered to the people, will consumer prices inflate?  Will all the free money produce an economic boom?  Or will the economy stall as inflation rises in a stagflationary quagmire?

  The fact that this is all happening in an election year ups the ante.  As the campaign trail heats up, followed by debates, advertisements, and party conventions, proposed solutions to the economic problem will range from the extreme to the absurd.  You won’t hear mention of freedom, liberty, honest money, and small government…unless you go here.

  But it will be quite a delight to observe, if only the outcomes weren’t so destructive.  Here’s a preview of what’s to come…

  Two hominids, panting at the watering hole, calling each other names, tweeting insults, squawking and shrieking over who gets to divvy up and dole out the peanuts.  One wants to transfer wealth from the rich via payments to the poor.  The other wants to rebuild the nation’s crumbly airports and bridges using money from somewhere.

  Yet the people, following several months of lockdown, don’t want to hear it.  As the weather heats up, and the economy cools down, tensions will combust.  Riots in Minnesota have flared up riots in Los Angeles.  But you ain’t seen nothing yet…

  This is a full societal breakdown.  Racial injustice may be today’s rage.  But there’s plenty of other injustices for people to go mad over.  By the dogdays of August, no doubt, when the weekly $600 unemployment checks program has expired, riots will come to a Target near you.

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  After that, things will really get ugly.

  

• Here's What Each State Is Binge-Watching During The COVID-19 Lockdown
  Here’s What Each State Is Binge-Watching During The COVID-19 Lockdown
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 22:50

  With months of government-enforced lockdowns starting to come to an end, Americans have found themselves watching hours and hours of “comfort food” TV during the COVID-19 outbreak.

  CableTV.com recently conducted a survey of nearly 7,000 housebound viewers and found that they’re spending a lot of time with old friends – capital “F” Friends, to be exact.

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  “Friends,” is a clear winner, with 11 states currently binging on the New York City-based show.

  Eleven states, all in blue, have more than one show that their residents are binging continuously.

  Among the most recent shows, Netflix’s “Tiger King,” “The Midnight Gospel,” and “#BlackAF,” make the popular cut.

  Read more here…

  

• Paul Craig Roberts Questions The Campaign Against HCQ
  Paul Craig Roberts Questions The Campaign Against HCQ
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 22:30

  Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

  The Covid-19 pandemic has brought out many disturbing features of our society. Misinformation, or perhaps more accurately, disinformation, abounds in the service of agendas ranging from those who interpret the virus as a useful ploy for the construction of a police state, to Big Pharma and its allies who are moving us toward mass vaccinations, to the narcissistic views of those who would sacrifice the elderly and ill rather than to be inconvenienced by being denied access to bars and beaches.  Every aspect of the pandemic, including Trump’s own use of HCQ, is being used against the President of the United States.

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  At a time when accurate information is essential, the waters are instead muddied by disinformation in the service of political, ideological, and profit agendas.  The irresponsibility of those putting their self-interests first is extraordinary.  It indicates that the social bond between people that made America a country has been dissolved by greed, multiculturalism, and Identity Politics.  America has become a country without a common interest. It is a narcissistic state.

  This article is limited to the campaign against HCQ.  HCQ—hydroxychloroquine—has been in use for 65 years for the prevention or treatment of malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.  It is officially labeled a safe drug.  Many doctors treating Covid patients have found and reported HCQ, when used early enough together with zinc and the antibiotic azithromycin to be an effective and safe treatment.

  I have reported and made available many of the reports of HCQ’s efficacy and safety.  See for example:

  • https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/04/11/professor-didier-raoult-releases-the-results-of-a-new-hydroxychloroquine-treatment-study-on-1061-patients/

  • https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/04/11/the-cure-that-works-is-opposed-by-fauci-and-cnn-and-big-pharma/ 

  • https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/80-patients-staff-members-come-coronavirus-texas-nursing-home-hydroxychloroquine-treatment-saves-1-patient/

  • https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/04/10/dogmatic-medical-orthodoxy-attempts-to-discredit-effective-covid-19-treatment/

  • https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/05/06/why-was-an-effective-cure-for-covid-19-withheld/ 

  Despite 65 years of safe use, HCQ is alleged to be dangerous and to cause heart attacks.  Its use is officially approved only for “adolescent and adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19.” Generally, by the time a patient is hospitalized the virus has progressed to a later stage in which treatment is less successful.  Studies of HCQ’s effectiveness, such as the VA one and apparently the more recent one reported in The Lancet, are limited to later stage hospitalized patients and seem to exclude the essential zinc component of the HCQ treatment.  In other words, the studies seem to be designed to exclude from official approval the treatment that doctors have found most effective. It is not easy for a layperson to know what the studies actually say as the media report the studies in an anti-Trump manner.  For the media, what is most important is criticism of Trump, not the effectiveness of a treatment.

  In contrast, the untested investigational antiviral drug, Remdesivir, which has no record of safe use and is extraordinarily expensive compared to HCQ, has been given the same clearence for use. The media is not interested in the effectiveness and safety, or lack of, of this new and untested drug. Trump isn’t taking it, and it is a potential profit-maker for Big Pharma. If Remdesivir fails, the failure will be used to dispose of the hope for cures and to focus on vaccination.

  It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that HCQ/zinc is being sidelined in order to clear the way for a profitable vaccine and a vaccination mandate.  

  But the vaccines are not panning out.

  The Moderna vax touted by Bill Gates and Dr. Fauci caused severe illnesses in one-fifth of the test recipients. 

  The other fast-tracked vaccine developed by the Oxford Vaccine Group proved ineffective. The vaccine produced insufficient antibodies to prevent Covid-19 infection. 

  …

  A few years ago the British medical journal, The Lancet, published a paper touting the safety of HCQ.  But this was before HCQ with zinc was found effective if used earlier enough against Covid-19.  Covid-19 turned HCQ’s effectiveness into a big problem for Big Pharma’s big profits.  

  The solution was another study by medical professionals some of whom have ties to Big Pharma and none of whom, apparently, are involved in the treatment of Covid patients.  The study lumps together people in different stages of the disease and undergoing different treatments. It touts its large sample, but many of the patients in the sample received treatment too late after the virus had reached their heart and other vital organs.  Most likely the people who died from heart failure died as a result of the virus, not from HCQ.  

  To be effective treatment has to stop the virus early. Waiting until the patient must be hospitalized has given the virus too much of a head start. Every doctor, and there are many, who reports success with the HCQ treatment stresses early treatment.  President Trump used a two-week treatment with HCQ as a prophylactic as he was constantly coming into contact with people who tested positive for the virus.  Many medical professionals who are treating Covid patients also use HCQ as a prophylactic.

  The Lancet study was a rush job as it was essential for Big Pharma to prevent the spread of the HCQ treatment and awareness of its safety and effectiveness. The study’s authors completed the data collection around the middle of April and the study was published on May 22.  As soon as it appeared, it was used to close down the World Health Organization’s clinical  trial of hydoxychloroquine in coronavirus patients citing safety concerns. Most likely, the trial was aborted in order to  prevent an official agency from finding out that HCQ worked.

  The media, of course, used the suspended trial to cast more doubt on Trump’s judgment for recommending and using the treatment, the implication being that Trump had put himself at more risk from a heart attack than from the virus itself. 

  The Daily Mail, which is often somewhat skeptical of official reports, even misreported French virologist Didier Raoult’s report ) of his success with treating 1,061 patients with HCQ/AZ as consisting of only a small sample of 30 patients. A small sample is considered to be inconclusive. Thus 1,061 people became 30.

  The Lancet study claims a high mortality from HCQ treatment, reporting a death rate ranging from 5.1% to 13.8%.  In response to a journalist when asked about this claim, Didier Raoult said that he and has colleagues have followed 4,000 of their patients so far.  They have had 36 deaths and none from heart problems for a death rate of 0.009%.  According to The Lancet study, he should have between 204 and 552  patients dead from heart problems.  He has zero.  Raoult had more than 10,000 cardiograms analysed by rythmologists (a special kind of cardiologist) searching for any sign of heart problems.  

  NIH’s Dr. Fauci denies that Raoult’s hard evidence is evidence.  On May 27 Fauci said, without showing shame of his ignorance or his lie, that there’s no evidence that shows the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is effective at treating COVID-19.

  Perhaps what Fauci means is that no study undertaken by NIH or another Big Pharma friendly official body has been done and that only such studies constitute evidence.

  When hard evidence such as Raoult’s is suppressed and misreported while “studies” doctored to produce a predetermined conclusion that serves Big Pharma profits are rushed into publication, we know that money has pushed ethics out of medical research.  A number of concerned people have been telling us this for some time.  We are past due to listen to them.

  Private medicine is profit driven, which makes it susceptible to fraud.  In long ago days fraud was restrained by the moral character of doctors and the respect for truth of researchers.  These restraints, never perfect, have eroded as greed turned everything, integrity itself, into a commodity that is bought and sold.

  The intent is to bury HCQ as a low cost effective treatment and to put in its place a high cost alternative whether effective or not, and to supplement this enhancement of profits with mass vaccination which might do us more harm than the virus itself.  Big Pharma could care less.  The only value it knows is profit.

  This intent has garnered the support of the French, Belgium and Italian governments. Using The Lancet study and WHO’s termination of its HCQ trial as the excuse, the French government revoked its decree authorizing HCQ treatment. Belgium’s health ministry issued a warning against the use of HCQ except in registered clinical trials. Italy’s health agency wants HCQ’s use banned outside of clinical trials and suspended authorization to use HCQ as a Covid-19 treatment.

  Does this mean that Raoult and his team who by treating Covid patients with HCQ have achieved the remarkable low death rate of 0.009% are prohibited from using the proven cure to save lives? Will Raoult and his team be imprisoned if they continue to save lives? What about the people who will die from the three government’s prevention of a safe and effective treatment? Will France, Belgium, and Italy accept responsibility for these lost lives?

  I can’t avoid wondering if the revolving door between Big Pharma and the NIH and CDC which corrupts US public health decisions also operates in France, Belgium and Italy. Are European health officials elevating themselves by climbing over the dead bodies of their victims?

  

• Hong Kongers Scramble To Swap Their Currency For US Dollars As 'Special Status' Threatened
  Hong Kongers Scramble To Swap Their Currency For US Dollars As ‘Special Status’ Threatened
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 22:10

  Even before protests over a controversial extradition bill sparked the tumultuous pro-democracy movement that swept across Hong Kong last year, the notion that the city’s freedoms were under threat, and that China would soon move to curtail them, had been gestating since the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Last Spring, before the movement began in earnest, Kyle Bass published a paper entitled “the Quiet Panic” about how Hong Kong was a ticking time bomb. A few months later, it exploded.

  Over the past 16 months, expats haven’t been the only ones fleeing Hong Kong. Virtually everyone who can afford to move has at least considered the possibility of selling their once extremely valuable Hong Kong real estate and fleeing elsewhere, perhaps to New Zealand, or Australia, or Malaysia – or Taiwan, which is currently drawing up plans to welcome expats.

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  As more prepare to move before China tightens its grip, Bloomberg reported Friday that Hong Kong residents have been exchanging more of their HKD holdings into foreign currencies at banks and money exchange counters on Thursday, according to Sing Tao, Hong Kong’s second-largest Chinese-language newspaper. According to BBG, the paper didn’t cite a source for the data, but it’s not exactly difficult to believe.

  On Thursday, Beijing’s Politburo Standing Committee officially wove a new National Security law into Hong Kong’s constitution, taking advantage of a loophole requiring Hong Kong to always have a national security law on its books. Many have decried the move as a crossing of the Rubicon – that Beijing no longer cares about placating its western “allies” as it cracks down on freedoms in territories it claims.

  The FX activity was driven by concerns about US sanctions, and the possibility that the US will immediately move to revoke Hong Kong’s “special status”, which allows it more favorable trade treatment and other advantages over mainland China. US Secretary of State Pompeo warned that he had recommended to Congress that HK is no longer independent from Beijing.

  Some popular money exchange shops in Tsim Sha Tsui, Central and Wan Chai areas even ran out of USD on Thursday evening, forcing some people to trade their dollar-pegged HKD for GBP, JPY, CHF, AUD and NZD instead.

  Though spot HKD is trading toward the strong end of its band Friday as the dollar weakens against the euro and several other major rivals, Kyle Bass’s bet against the currency peg, which critics once slammed as absurd and unlikely to pay off, is becoming increasingly popular as a trade as derivatives markets price in growing expectations for depreciation.

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  Meanwhile, HK executive Carrie Lam (known to her many detractors as “Piglet”, a reference to the character from “Winnie the Pooh”, published a notice in almost all Chinese-language papers in the city calling on citizens “not to fear” the national security law, insisting it would only target a “small minority” of “criminals”.

  Carrie Lam to fellow citizens of Hong Kong, minus readers of Apple Daily: Fear not, national security laws will only target a small minority of criminal acts and activities, as well as the foreign interference that has stirred up unrest.@natashakhanhkhttps://t.co/o9YfuLWNsp

  — Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) May 29, 2020

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  We imagine this trend isn’t over yet. Let’s hope Hong Kong has enough foreign reserves to stave off a wider banking crisis.

  

• Nationwide Chaos: NYPD Precinct Attacked, CNN Vandalized, Treasury Breached As Mayors Beg For Calm
  Nationwide Chaos: NYPD Precinct Attacked, CNN Vandalized, Treasury Breached As Mayors Beg For Calm
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 21:53

  Update (2315ET): Rioters made quick work of the CNN logo outside the building, covering it with graffiti and standing on it, as if declaring victory over fake news.

  CNN being vandalized in Atlanta pic.twitter.com/CPlZkyhtUC

  — The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) May 30, 2020

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  In Atlanta, vandals broke into the College Football Hall of Fame where they stole memorabilia.

  #BREAKING New images into @Fox5Atlanta show vandals breaking the windows of the College Football Hall of Fame and stealing items from the Downtown #Atlanta location. #fox5atl #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/n0VHSEqoea

  — FOX 5 Atlanta (@FOX5Atlanta) May 30, 2020

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  #BREAKING: College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta has been destroyed & looted

  pic.twitter.com/JO7Gi0kBIU

  — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 30, 2020

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  #BREAKING: Several fires have been set in downtown Atlanta: https://t.co/pcc4NclNk6 pic.twitter.com/xqS04yTHQi

  — WSB-TV (@wsbtv) May 30, 2020

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  More shots from Atlanta tonight pic.twitter.com/TmUmW5nXxZ

  — kieron (@kieroncg) May 30, 2020

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  Meanwhile, the Treasury Department in DC was breached by rioters, who spray painted the building. According to CNN, some of the protesters were stopped by US Secret Service but eventually let go.

  TREASURY DEPARTMENT IN DC BREACHED BY RIOTERS

  — intelwave ⚓️ (@inteldotwav) May 30, 2020

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  Trying their best to calm things down were New York Mayor Bill de Blasop, who tweeted “We have a long night ahead of us in Brooklyn. Our sole focus is deescalating this situation and getting people home safe. There will be a full review of what happened tonight. We don’t ever want to see another night like this.”

  Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms admonished the protesters – telling them “You are disgracing our city, you are disgracing the life of George Floyd”

  Atlanta Mayor Bottoms condemns rioters in fiery speech: “You are disgracing our city, you are disgracing the life of George Floyd” pic.twitter.com/QPCVkG0JIO

  — BNO News (@BNONews) May 30, 2020

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  Maybe the protesters just need to listen to Killer Mike:

  Drop everything and watch Killer Mike’s speech in Atlanta tonight. I don’t agree with him on all of his politics, but that doesn’t matter tonight. He’s 100% right about how to handle protesting and how to change the system… and it isn’t burning your city to the ground. pic.twitter.com/VzDNMTM0wH

  — Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) May 30, 2020

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  *  *  *

  ‘With ongoing social unrest in Minneapolis, protests are unfolding across major US cities on Friday evening. From Washington, D.C. to New York City to Atlanta to Ohio to Los Angeles to San Jose, tens of thousands of people are marching on the street demanding justice for George Floyd, the man who was killed by Minneapolis Police on Monday.

  Starting in Atlanta, protesters have attacking CNN’s headquarters. 

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  The Atlanta protests quickly turned violent:

  “What didn’t happen in time to prepare… for angry, empassioned folks that were going to be protesting… we have to be better prepared.” – @JamesAGagliano to @AC360 #CNN pic.twitter.com/EHN8PTP9JW

  — Alice Stewart (@alicetweet) May 30, 2020

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  CNN’s Fernando Alfonso reports the social unrest outside of his newsroom. 

  Police cars getting literally destroyed in Atlanta outside the CNN Center pic.twitter.com/x5zRxZVQpb

  — Fernando Alfonso III (@fernalfonso) May 29, 2020

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  Protesters are now setting Atlanta Police Department (APD) vehicles on fire. 

  Portions of the CNN Center in Atlanta have been outright destroyed even as police in riot gear defend the building

  “Protesters” and “demonstrators” destroy portions of CNN Center in Atlanta, torch cars, toss incendiary device into phalanx of police in riot gear defending building and employees.

  Violent rioters endangering lives.

  APD needs full turnout, augmentation from State Patrol & Feds. pic.twitter.com/RJrT0C0yI6

  — James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) May 30, 2020

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  BREAKING: APD squad car is now on fire as the protest turns increasingly violent. #Atlanta #GeorgeFloydprotest | Slideshow: https://t.co/McOhwPwtjr pic.twitter.com/234qxYiaht

  — CBS46 (@cbs46) May 30, 2020

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  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets several pictures of the chaos and destruction unfolding in downtown Atlanta.  

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  “Black Lives Matter” signs were spotted in Atlanta. 

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   It’s getting wild in Atlanta tonight 

  Downtown Atlanta tonightpic.twitter.com/ozMpcNsZ6K

  — Courtney Holland 🇺🇸 (@hollandcourtney) May 30, 2020

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  In Washington, D.C., hundreds of protesters, if not thousands, have assembled outside of the White House. 

  The protest then headed to in front of the White House. A protester was taken by the USSS in front of Pennsylvania Ave into an adjacent federal building. Unclear what he did.A couple men then splintered off from the group and spray painted “F*ck Trump” on the building. @cbsnews pic.twitter.com/OVwPu0PF6X

  — Fin Gomez (@finnygo) May 29, 2020

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  #GeorgeFloyd Protest just outside of the White House. pic.twitter.com/SeZiRfiXT5

  — Fin Gomez (@finnygo) May 29, 2020

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  A protester climbed the fence of a federal building and spray-painted “Fuck Trump.” 

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  Here’s the video:

  At least one protestor spray painted graffiti on the bank building. pic.twitter.com/GSglZWAI18

  — Clarence Williams (@nu1wcf) May 29, 2020

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  Secret Service clashes with protesters

  WATCH: Secret Service tackles protester as fights break out in front of the White House at a #GeorgeFloydMurder protest in Washington, DC. pic.twitter.com/2P9parhFwX

  — Trump’s Failing AMERICA right NOW! 👎 (@IndictPOTUS45) May 29, 2020

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  Hundreds, maybe even thousands, are marching the streets towards the White House this evening. 

  DC Protest now heading to the White House pic.twitter.com/nnVnFr9uod

  — Deb 🧻 🆘 (@debramayberry) May 29, 2020

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  Headed for the White House pic.twitter.com/Sw0m5bueZa

  — Jamie Catherwood (@jfc_3_) May 29, 2020

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  #NOW: On the fourth day of nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd, hundreds are setting out from DC’s U Street for a march toward the White House.

  Their starting chant: “No justice, no peace.” Later, it’s “Derek Chauvin, third degree—fuck that, it’s first degree.” pic.twitter.com/dNpZ2S75B1

  — Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) May 29, 2020

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  Protesters continue to clash with Secret Service in front of the White House. 

  People have managed to toss over the temporary barricades, they’re being pushed back by the Secret Service. More police arriving. Heating up fast outside the White House’s north lawn. pic.twitter.com/jaXKmjV0R9

  — Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) May 29, 2020

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  More folks headed to the White House. 

  The hundreds still with this protest are marching away from the White House eastbound for the Capitol building. Pennsylvania Avenue is shut down for blocks but cars watching them pass are honking in support.

  Out ahead are the Trump Hotel and the Justice Dept. pic.twitter.com/5dhkugYKUs

  — Alejandro Alvarez (@aletweetsnews) May 30, 2020

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  According to VOA’s Steve Herman, “the White House is on lockdown, with many reporters stuck inside,” due to demonstrations outside.

  Media at the @WhiteHouse instructed to remain inside: https://t.co/6nOnzypFN7

  — Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 29, 2020

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  In New York City, thousands hit the streets in Manhattan to protest police brutality. 

  A friend just sent this to me, crowds arriving right now to protest outside Barclays Center. pic.twitter.com/lHSb9VFm3e

  — Mariya Abedi (@msabedi) May 29, 2020

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  NYPD protecting the entrance of the Barclays Center earlier today. 

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  UPDATE: Police and protesters clashed outside the Barclays Center a short time ago. Several violent arrests were posted to social media. Other videos showed pepper spray being used. (Video courtesy Jessica Roff) pic.twitter.com/9YPcGyoZA6

  — Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) May 30, 2020

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  The protest goes from peaceful to violent quickly in NYC.

  New York City protest pic.twitter.com/grzxcjckgb

  — maria viti (@selfdeclaredref) May 29, 2020

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  A lot just popped off at the protest for George Floyd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Pepper spray, batons, and several arrests https://t.co/gkdtu4ZUVb pic.twitter.com/HX953IWtPq via @j0ncampbell #NewYork

  — Protests Map (@MapProtests) May 29, 2020

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  As night falls, rioters have attacked and overrun the 88th precinct in Brooklyn, resulting in a level 3 mobilization, which requires all special units respond and four cars from every command in the city to location. The 84th precincts is under siege, as well. Also, Brooklyn North.

  NYPD van by Fort Green Park set ablaze just now.

  Level 3 mobilization to 88 Pct.

  10-13 call (Officer down) at 84 Pct. pic.twitter.com/As3wvUsQuK

  — James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) May 30, 2020

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  The situation in the Big Apple is quickly turning from bad to worse, with unconfirmed reports that officers have been shot:

  Reports of another NYPD 10-13 (Radio call of “Officer down”).

  Also another RMP (Police van) engulfed in flames.

  — James A. Gagliano (@JamesAGagliano) May 30, 2020

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  Police vans were lit on fire by the angry mob:

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  #Breaking Protesters set #NYPD van on fire. @NY1 @RonLeeReporting captured this video in Fort Green, #Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/cefEVet9gO

  — Dean Meminger (@DeanMeminger) May 30, 2020

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  The situation in Brooklyn is critical:

  Rioters pushing the lines in Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/8hcyjsyTwO

  — Rob O’Donnell (@odonnell_r) May 30, 2020

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  One Twiter user tweets a list of cities where protests have been seen on Friday evening. 

  • Louisville, KY
  • Minneapolis, MN
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Evansville, IN
  • Columbia, SC Charlotte
  • NC Memphis, TN
  • Tampa Bay, FL
  • Columbus, OH
  • New York City
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • Omaha, NE
  • St. Louis, MO
  • Ferguson, MO
  • Houston, TX

  In Houston, protesters clash with police. 

  When the crowd started to clash with officers in Downtown Houston. @FOX26Houston pic.twitter.com/TKcY7Ju54o

  — Natasha Geigel (@NatashaFox26) May 29, 2020

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  Protesters “temporarily shut down the northbound lanes of 288 going into downtown Houston Friday afternoon,” tweeted Houston Chronicles’ Mark Mulligan. 

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  Protesters unleash hell on a Houston Police car.

  Downtown Houston right now #GeorgeLloyd pic.twitter.com/hb66xyARw5

  — TITANSHOMER (@TitansHomer) May 30, 2020

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  One Twitter user says “snipers” are “on buildings” in Houston. 

  DO NOT IGNORE ‼️‼️‼️

  IF YOU ARE AT THE HOUSTON PROTEST PLEASE BE CAREFUL THERE ARE SNIPERS ON BUILDINGS pic.twitter.com/C0AoXJMwUv

  — ACAB! #blacklivesmatter (@wizonv) May 29, 2020

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  On the West Coast, protests in downtown Los Angeles have begun. 

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  In San Jose, protesters are shutting down 101 Highway.

  #BREAKING: Demonstrators protesting death of George Floyd block Highway 101 in San Jose. https://t.co/4BYSOAhrDm pic.twitter.com/WYeYiD6iMg

  — Kristofer Noceda (@krisnoceda) May 29, 2020

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  Nationwide protests are likely to get worse through the weekend. It’s only a matter of time before more governors deploy the Nation Guard to restore order. America is quickly descending into chaos. 

  Watch Protests Live:

  Live: George Floyd Death Protests Around The U.S. | NBC News

  George Floyd death: Protests continue for 4th straight day in Minneapolis | LIVE

  

• Three Ways Lockdowns Are Costing Human Lives
  Three Ways Lockdowns Are Costing Human Lives
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 21:50

  Authored by Kladji Bregu via The Mises Institute,

  The conversation about the lockdowns when the COVID-19 crises started was centered on saving lives at the cost of the economy. This makes sense since many of those making decisions were epidemiologists and we cannot expect them to fully understand the impact of lockdowns on the economy and human lives. The problem is even many economists argued the same and completely ignored the harm that would be created by the lockdowns.

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  These economists have fallen prey to what Frédéric Bastiat called the “unseen” consequences of a policy. Frédéric Bastiat argued that an “act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it is seen. The others unfold in succession — they are not seen: it is well for us, if they are foreseen.” Applied to lockdowns this means that it is easier to see the deaths caused by COVID-19 than to see the deaths caused by lockdowns. In what follows I provide three arguments on how the economic lockdowns are costing us human lives and will continue to do so long after they end.

  Deaths of Despair

  A recent study finds that we could have up to 75,000 more deaths of despair over the next 10 years. Deaths of despair refer to suicides and deaths from abuse of alcohol and drugs. The study argues that these deaths will primarily be caused by increased unemployment, fear, and isolation. Unemployment is the main factor and the analysis is based on the projected unemployment rate between 2020 and 2029. The authors estimate that in the best case scenario (lowest unemployment) we will have about 28,000 more people die because of deaths of despair and in the worst-case scenario (highest unemployment) we could have up to 154,000 more people die. Given that a recent study that shows unemployment will remain high for a prolonged period of time we can expect the number to be higher than 75,000.

  This is not the only study that argues unemployment is directly related to deaths of despair. Consider for instance a NBER study found an increase of 3.6 percent on opioid death rate for each one percent increase in unemployment. Based on this, we could see another 29,000 more deaths because of opioids annually. One may argue that these are only predictions, but sadly the indications we have so far show support for these studies. For instance, a doctor in Bay Area, California told a local ABC7 reporter “I mean, we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” This is not one isolated case, Washington Examiner has reported recently that “More people died of suicide in a single Tennessee county last week than of the coronavirus across the entire state, according to one local official.” Hence, the lockdowns either directly through isolation or indirectly through unemployment are costing us many human lives.

  Deaths Because of a Lack of Preventive Care

  In a recent interview for Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, argued that now “the cure is bigger than the disease at this point.” He argued that in the U.S. every month 150,000 people are diagnosed with cancer, but the numbers are now much lower. Unfortunately this will lead to higher death rates for this group of people. Add to this the people who are not receiving their chemotherapy as they should and we start to see a clearer picture of how the lockdowns are harming the human lives of those with who have cancer. These are only two examples but if we consider the many more preventive care visits that are not happening it becomes clear that we will see increased deaths because of a lack of preventive care.

  This has become such a big concern for doctors so that many of them are speaking out against this and hopefully we will see a policy response soon. As it is reported in this Forbes article at least 600 doctors around the country are calling for an end to lockdowns and their reasoning is in line with that of Dr. Scott. As Dr. Marilyn Singleton argued “Ending the lockdowns are not about Wall Street or disregard for people’s lives; it about saving lives.”  

  Deaths Because of Hanger and Malnourishment  

  When the lockdowns started many argued that it was worth giving up some economic growth in order to save lives. Unfortunately these people miss the point that economic growth is what saves millions of lives around the globe every single year. We know that as economic conditions get worse many people around the world struggle to meet their basic nutritional needs and this leads to more deaths. In the New York Times,  Abdi Latif Dahir argues that in 2020, 265 million people will find themselves in acute hunger and that will be nearly double the year before. To put this in perspective let us consider that poverty had declined since 1998. But one may ask isn’t the economic downturn because of the COVID-19 crisis? As Ryan McMaken has noted, in previous similar pandemics we did not have the economic downturn we are experiencing now, so the answer is no this is because of the economic lockdowns not the COVID-19 pandemic.

  What is more, this is not a problem that only poor countries will face. Even though poor countries will be hit the most, we are seeing the consequences here in the U.S already. Consider for instance that “according to a survey that found 37% of unemployed Americans ran out of food in the past month and 46% said they worried about running out.” While deaths directly caused by hunger may not be high in the U.S. we must keep in mind that malnourishment also harms our health and leads to more deaths in the long run.

  Conclusion

  The careful and concerned reader may argue that it may be true lockdowns cost human lives but so does COVID-19 so we had to implement the lockdowns. This is a good point and it is not the purpose of this article to diminish the danger COVID-19 poses to certain groups of people in our society or diminish the value of the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost. The point of the article is that we must consider the tradeoffs carefully since both COVID-19 and lockdowns both cost us human lives. So, the answer is not as simple as it is sometimes presented by officials who are so eager to shut everything down.

  If we do not correctly take into account the opportunity cost, in terms of lives that can be lost from lockdowns, then we will most likely continue to make bad decisions in the future. We need to look for alternatives and instead of locking down the whole economy we should protect those who are the most vulnerable. But, even when we consider this solution, we should keep in mind that centralized solutions hardly ever work for such complex issues and large countries like the U.S.

  

• 'Trump Supporters Targeted' – Gunshot Fired Into Arizona RNC Field Office 
  ‘Trump Supporters Targeted’ – Gunshot Fired Into Arizona RNC Field Office 
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 21:30

  A Republican National Committee (RNC) official tells Fox News that someone fired a gun into the RNC office in Mohave County, Arizona on Thursday evening. 

  The official said the incident occurred at the Mohave County Republican Office in Bullhead City, Arizona, around 7 pm on Thursday. At the time, there were five volunteers gathered inside when the bullet shattered a window near the entrance. 

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  There were no injuries, but the official said the bullet’s trajectory came “extremely proximity” to where volunteers were working. The official described the incident as a very “scary situation,” and said local law enforcement is investigating the matter along with possible motives. 

  “Last night, another group of President Donald Trump supporters appeared to be targeted when a gunshot was fired into a clearly-marked local Republican office while they were inside hosting an event,” Trump Victory spokesman Rick Gorka told Fox News. “Thankfully, no one was hurt.”

  He added: “This pattern of violence against our volunteers is sickening.”

  The incident occurred during the same time of continuing social unrest in Minneapolis (which, at the time, was in the third night), following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police on Monday. 

  This week, America has become more divided than ever, something we explained in a recent piece titled “”Land Of The Free?” – The Polarizing Politics Of A Pandemic Exposed.” 

  On social media, the riots in Minneapolis have clearly drawn a division between Right and Left of political groups. 

  

• CDC Admits COVID-19 Antibody Tests Are Wrong Half The Time & Virus Isn't That Deadly
  CDC Admits COVID-19 Antibody Tests Are Wrong Half The Time & Virus Isn’t That Deadly
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 21:10

  Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

  The mainstream media is ignoring the fact that the CDC has admitted the death rate for COVID-19 is actually lower than the flu. This is happening as the media admits that the antibody tests are wrong 50% of the time!

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  The scamdemic fear-mongering is ongoing and the propaganda is getting worse daily, even as their OWN DATA shows otherwise. Instead of giving the public the facts, the media continues to push for an extended lockdown, freedom trampling regulations, mass surveillance, and our permanent enslavement for their political overlords.

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  The CDC just came out with a report that should be earth-shattering to the narrative of the political class, yet it will go into the thick pile of vital data and information about the virus that is not getting out to the public. For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26 percent.

  Until now, we have been ridiculed for thinking the death rate was that low, as opposed to the 3.4 percent estimate of the World Health Organization, which helped drive the panic and the lockdowns. Now the CDC is agreeing to the lower rate in plain ink.

  Plus, ultimately we might find out that the IFR is even lower because numerous studies and hard counts of confined populations have shown a much higher percentage of asymptomatic cases. Simply adjusting for a 50 percent asymptomatic rate would drop their fatality rate to 0.2 percent – exactly the rate of fatality Dr. John Ionnidis of Stanford University projected.

  More importantly, as I mentioned before, the overall death rate is meaningless because the numbers are so lopsided. Given that at least half of the deaths were in nursing homes, a back-of-the-envelope estimate would show that the infection fatality rate for non-nursing home residents would only be 0.1 percent or 1 in 1,000. And that includes people of all ages and all health statuses outside of nursing homes. Since nearly all of the deaths are those with comorbidities.  -The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity

  This is something most people have known relatively early on, as the government continued to inflate the numbers and call every death a COVID-19 casualty so they could commit economic terrorism on the entire planet. And those antibody tests the ruling class wants us all to take before can even think about coming off house arrest? Those are only right half the time.  How did CNN spin this into more fear porn and propaganda? Check it out:

  “Serologic test results should not be used to make decisions about returning persons to the workplace.”

  Health officials or health care providers who are using antibody tests need to use the most accurate test they can find and might need to test people twice, the CDC said in the new guidance. –CNN

  So, you can’t be free, which is your birthright, because their tests are inaccurate. It’s actually quite shocking people are even agreeing to these tests in the first place, all to pad the numbers for this scamdemic that has been little more than a hoax since day one. This has become so blatantly ridiculous that it’s actually hard to believe there’s anyone out there still supporting the government and their puppets in the mainstream media. They want you to still be afraid.  They need you in fear.  Do not comply.

  

• Gang Of Monkeys Attacks Lab Assistant, Escapes With Coronavirus Test Samples
  Gang Of Monkeys Attacks Lab Assistant, Escapes With Coronavirus Test Samples
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 20:56

  A gang of monkeys in Delhi, India assaulted a laboratory assistant and escaped with coronavirus test samples from three patients, according to Sky News, citing local media.

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  The incident happened near Meerut Medical College. According to the report, one of the monkeys was later spotted in a tree chewing one of the sample collection kits, the Times of India reported – which noted that the patients required new tests.

  It is the latest example of the highly intelligent, red-faced rhesus macaques taking advantage of India’s nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus.

  While they have proved an increasing problem in urban areas of the country in recent years, lockdown measures in the last two months have emboldened the monkeys.

  Reports have shown them congregating in parts of Delhi normally crowded with humans. –Sky

  In March we noted that rival monkey gangs in Thailand – driven by starvation due to a lack of visitors amid the pandemic – have been roving the streets looking for food.

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  The ferocity of the animals shocked even locals, who are used to seeing the monkeys on a daily basis. One onlooker who captured video of the monkeys said: “They looked more like wild dogs than monkeys. They went crazy for the single piece of food. I’ve never seen them this aggressive,” according to the Daily Mail.

  Hundreds of hungry monkeys swarm across Thai street as ‘rival gangs’ fight over food after tourists who normally feed them stay away because of coronavirus https://t.co/lQZ0sOzwDF pic.twitter.com/8TgrCTBrQ8

  — Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) March 12, 2020

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  According to the Sky report, people have been advised not to feed monkeys during the pandemic over fears that doing so could cause the disease to mutate and infect primates. If that happened, it could have a devastating impact.

  “The point is, we have very little understanding of the virus, and it is better to limit our interactions with wildlife till there is more research done on its effects on non-human primates and other animal species,” a senior biologist from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department previously told The Hindu.

  “Very often they snatch food from people as they are walking, and sometimes they even tear files and documents by climbing in through the windows,” said Home Ministry employee Ragni Sharma in 2018.

  

• All Of The World's Money & Markets In One Visualization
  All Of The World’s Money & Markets In One Visualization
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 20:50

  In the current economic circumstances, there are some pretty large numbers being thrown around by both governments and the financial media.

  The U.S. budget deficit this year, for example, is projected to hit $3.8 trillion, which would be more than double the previous record set during the financial crisis ($1.41 trillion in FY2009). Meanwhile, the Fed has announced “open-ended” asset-buying programs to support the economy, which will add even more to its current $7 trillion balance sheet.

  Given the scale of these new numbers –  here’s how Visual Capitalist’s Jeff Desjardins relates them back to the more conventional numbers and figures that we may be more familiar with?

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  Introducing the $100 Billion Square

  In the above data visualization, we even the playing field by using a common denominator to put the world’s money and markets all on the same scale and canvas.

  Each black square on the chart is worth $100 billion, and is not a number to be trifled with:

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  In fact, the entire annual GDP of Cuba could fit in one square ($97 billion), and the Greek economy would be roughly two squares ($203 billion).

  Alternatively, if you’re contrasting this unit to numbers found within Corporate America, there are useful comparisons there as well. For example, the annual revenues of Wells Fargo ($103.9 billion) would just exceed one square, while Facebook’s would squeeze in with room to spare ($70.7 billion).

  Billions, Trillions, or Quadrillions?

  Here’s our full list, which sums up all of the world’s money and markets, from the smallest to the biggest, along with sources used:

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  Derivatives top the list, estimated at $1 quadrillion or more in notional value according to a variety of unofficial sources.

  However, it’s worth mentioning that because of their non-tangible nature, the value of financial derivatives are measured in two very different ways. Notional value represents the position or obligation of the contract (i.e. a call to buy 100 shares at the price of $50 per share), while gross market value measures the price of the derivative security itself (i.e. $1.00 per call option, multiplied by 100 shares).

  It’s a subtle difference that manifests itself in a big way numerically.

  

• 33 Examples Of Twitter's Anti-Conservative Bias
  33 Examples Of Twitter’s Anti-Conservative Bias
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 20:30

  Via NewsBusters.org,

  President Donald Trump is right that social media companies have been targeting conservatives. Twitter, in particular, has been engaging in a relentless attack on the American political process by censoring conservatives.

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  Now that has escalated to fact-checking the president nearly five months from a presidential election. 

  The Media Research Center released a report in 2018, which found that Twitter led in censoring the right. That hasn’t changed. Project Veritas caught Twitter with hidden camera interviews admitting the process of shadow banning — which means content is hidden from users without the poster ever knowing it. One engineer admitted that accounts were flagged as bots simply by searching for words such as “America” and “God.” Twitter’s rules have been influenced by liberal think tanks like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Since then, Twitter has gotten worse. 

  Here are some examples:

  What Twitter Has Done to Trump:

  1. Fact-checking Trump’s tweets

  A tweet from the president that discussed mail-in ballots was labeled as an “unsubstantiated claim” by Twitter. When Trump tweeted, “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent,” a bright blue sentence was added by the social media platform at the bottom of the tweet. The link said, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots.” The label led to a Twitter Events page, which said, “Trump makes unsubstantiated claim that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud.”

  The statement continued, “These claims are unsubstantiated, according to CNN, Washington Post and others. Experts say mail-in ballots are very rarely linked to voter fraud.”

  “From their bogus ‘fact check’ of @realDonaldTrump to their ‘head of site integrity’ displaying his clear hatred towards Republicans, Twitter’s blatant bias has gone too far,” tweeted Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel. She linked to The New York Times article headlined “Error and Fraud at Issue as Absentee Voting Rises.”

  2. Censorship of pro-Life Team Trump videos

  Twitter’s warning and interstitial, or filter, used to keep viewers from unknowingly seeing inappropriate videos was applied to a Trump campaign pro-life promo. Following Trump’s speech at the March for Life, his pro-life campaign video appeared to have been given an erroneous label/restriction by Twitter. The label was removed soon after Twitter admitted the error.

  3. No enforcement of policy for Democrats

  The bias against Trump has become so egregious that even The Hill and The Washington Post are calling it out. “According to emails reviewed by The Hill, the Trump campaign flagged new content on Twitter that it said had been deceptively edited,” The Hill’s Jonathan Easly wrote March 16. One video in question was shared by Mike Bloomberg’s former senior adviser Tim O’Brien and featured audio clips of Trump’s words spliced together and taken out of context, set to a rising graph showing “Confirmed Coronavirus Cases in US.” Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted a video with similar language.

  Even The Post‘s video editor for The Fact Checker Meg Kelly wrote that Trump “never says that the virus itself is a hoax, and although the Biden camp included the word ‘their,’ the edit does not make clear to whom or what Trump is referring.”

  4. Labeling simple photos of Trump as “sensitive content”

  NASCAR star Hailie Deegan posed for a picture with President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the Daytona 500 on Feb. 16. After she posted it to Twitter, some of her followers noted that the photo was covered by Twitter’s “sensitive content” filter. Memer and influencer Carpe Donktum (known for his memes that have been retweeted by Trump) tweeted a screenshot of Deegan’s post as it appeared on his feed.

  5. Removing Trump’s Twitter account

  President Trump’s personal Twitter account had disappeared in 2017 and was nowhere to be found until it was restored 11 minutes later. The account reappeared without explanation until Twitter’s official electoral and government relations account provided a bizarre explanation that it was “due to human error by a Twitter employee.”

  How Twitter Has Treated Other Conservatives:

  6. Preventing a pro-life election ad

  Before Twitter banned all political ads, it blocked a campaign ad by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) for addressing the “sale” of aborted baby parts in the name of research. While she was allowed to tweet the ad, Twitter prohibited her from paying to promote the ad to a larger audience.

  In the ad, Rep. Blackburn announced that she was running for U.S. Senate. To appeal to her conservative constituents, she cited her work fighting abortion.

  7. Senator Mitch McConnell’s campaign video

  It should come as no surprise that the official campaign Twitter account for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was suspended for sharing a video of the violent threats being made against the senator. Multiple people on Twitter were also suspended for sharing that video, including the Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra. Twitter eventually overturned this decision but only after numerous complaints.

  8. Candace Owens censored

  Conservative commentator Candace Owens had her Twitter account suspended for encouraging Americans to defy stay-at-home rules. A Twitter spokesperson said that Owens’s tweet response to Democrat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home policies encouraging the citizens of Michigan to “stand up” against Whitmer “violated the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, ‘specifically around heightened-risk health claims,’” reported The Hill. Owens’s tweet encouraged Michiganders to “Open your businesses” and “[g]o to work.”

  9. Trump’s attorney censored

  Trump’s attorney Rudy Guiliani’s tweet said, “Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to have a 100% effective rate treating COVID-19. Yet Democrat [Michigan Governor] Gretchen Whitmer is threatening doctors who prescribe it. If Trump is for something- Democrats are against it. They’re okay with people dying if it means opposing Trump.” His tweet was in response to Whitmer, who challenged Trump in a press conference on March 26, 2020.

  10. Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk censored

  Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk tweeted a similar sentiment. He said, “Fact: Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to have a 100% effective rate treating COVID-19[.] Yet Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is threatening doctors who prescribe it[.] If Trump is for something—Democrats are against it[.] They’re ok with people dying if it means opposing Trump[.] SICK!”

  A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that both Guiliani’s and Kirk’s accounts were temporarily locked for violations of the Twitter rules in reference to COVID-19.

  11. Fox News host Laura Ingraham censored

  Fox News host Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) tweeted: “Lenox Hill in New York among many hospitals already using Hydroxychloroquine with very promising results. One patient was described as ‘Lazarus’ who was seriously ill from Covid-19, already released.” After the liberal media demanded the tweet’s removal, a Twitter spokesperson explained that the tweet was removed due to a violation of its new policy regarding tweeting about COVID-19.

  12. Conservative journalist censored

  New York Post journalist Jon Levine announced via tweet on the morning of March 8 that “Twitter locked me out of my account last night over some of the Carlos Maza reporting,” before adding that the platform later took back the decision. “A rep for the company tells me that their action against me was ‘an error.’” But then Levine was suspended again almost immediately afterward, for the same tweets made about the former Vox reporter.

  13. Conservative actor and Trump supporter censored

  Actor James Woods, noted for his conservative Twitter account, was locked out of Twitter more than once. Most recently he was suspended for sharing a picture of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum. Woods had initially tweeted, “Just remember, this could have been Florida’s governor in the midst of the #WuhanCoronaVirus pandemic. Make sure you vote #Republican in November like your life depends on it. Because it does. #Trump2020Landslide.”

  14. Conservative sites locked out

  LifeSiteNews has been locked out of Twitter for “violating” its “rules” after tweeting an article about Jonathan “Jessica” Yaniv, a transgender activist who recently complained that gynecologists wouldn’t see Yaniv as a patient, despite having male genitals.

  15. Another site banned for “platform manipulation” violations

  The ZeroHedge founder reportedly, under the pseudonym Tyler Durden, asked, “Is This The Man Behind The Global Coronavirus Pandemic?” and theorized about the coronavirus’s true origins. ZeroHedge was then suspended from Twitter. Forbes claimed that a spokesperson from Twitter indicated that “ZeroHedge was removed for violating its platform manipulation policy, which the social media giant describes as ‘using Twitter to engage in bulk, aggressive or deceptive activity that misleads others and/or disrupts their experience.’” However, The Daily Mail cited a resurfaced research paper from the South China University of Technology, which may lend some credence to ZeroHedge’s initial reporting.

  ZeroHedge founder “Durden” said that he was suspended from Twitter after Buzzfeed claimed that his blog had doxed a Chinese scientist whom Durden argues was a “public figure.”

  16. Failure to enforce consistently

  Citing instances that “violate our abusive behavior policy,” Twitter Safety announced that “Today, we permanently suspended Alex Jones and InfoWars from Twitter and Periscope.” Not only was it enough to take down those accounts, but also, Twitter threatened to “take action” on “other accounts potentially associated with Alex Jones or InfoWars” if those accounts were “utilized in an attempt to circumvent their ban.”

  Meanwhile, comedian Kathy Griffin recently tweeted about assassinating the president, saying, “Syringe with nothing but air inside it would do the trick. F— TRUMP.” Griffin also famously held up a bloody head that resembled Trump. She’s still on the platform.

  17. Criticism of Bernie Sanders is “sensitive content”

  A video posted by MRCTV, an arm of the Media Research Center, was censored as “sensitive content” by Twitter on Feb. 24. “You may recall way back in 1961 they invaded Cuba, and everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world,” said Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), at the beginning of the video. The clip was from an interview in the 1980s where Sanders defended Castro. It was contrasted with a news clip from CBS that showed people in the streets celebrating after Fidel Castro died in 2016.

  18. 113 prominent conservatives censored between 2015-2019

  Between 2015 and 2019, there have been at least 113 different cases of conservative, pro-Trump or anti-establishment figures on Twitter being punished for expressing their views, many of them well-known in their fields. Notable people have been suspended, banned, blocked from advertising, shadowbanned, and censored. While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testified in Congress in September that “Twitter does not use political ideology to make decisions,” the evidence points in the opposite direction.

  How Twitter Defends the Left:

  19. Protecting Joe Biden

  A meme, made to look like a fake ad from former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign, showed the candidate smiling with a beam of light coming from his chest. A statement that says, “His brain? No. His heart,” sits to the left of the person. Trump’s director of communications Tim Murtaugh allegedly tweeted the image, saying, “Is this fake? Can’t trust Twitter, but this would seem to be the Biden campaign leaning in on the fact that ol’ Joe has lost his fastball.”

  Murtaugh’s tweet was removed, said tech magazine The Verge. At least 20 other accounts were allegedly suspended or had tweets allegedly removed, including actress and congressional candidate Mindy Robinson.

  20. Promoting liberal values

  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been consistent in his left-wing political positions. “Dorsey, the billionaire CEO of Twitter and mobile-payment company Square, is giving $5 million to Humanity Forward” in order to “build the case for a universal basic income [UBI],” Rolling Stone reported.

  Dorsey appeared on the May 21 episode of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s “Yang Speaks” podcast where he explained the idea of UBI is “long overdue” and that now “the only way we can change policy is by experimenting and showing case studies of why this works.”

  21. Protecting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

  An account that parodied Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was suspended on May 6. The user, named Alexandria Ocasio Cortez Press Release, was “permanently suspended” because it was too similar to the congressional representative’s account. According to the Washington Examiner, the man running the account, Michael Morrison, received an email explaining his permanent suspension and ominously saying, “This account will not be reinstated.” Dorsey has expressed his support for the young Democratic Socialist in Congress previously.

  22. Working with Planned Parenthood

  David Daleiden, the undercover journalist for the Center for Medical Progress, reported that the organization had 19 tweets blocked on Twitter, at the advice of Planned Parenthood. The tweets that were blocked reported on the public testimony of Planned Parenthood in court proceedings. Planned Parenthood’s attorneys told Twitter that the Center was live-streaming the hearing. Twitter reinstated the tweets after the appeal explained that Planned Parenthood had falsely described the tweets as a “live-stream.”

  23. Preventing discussion about transgender ideology

  Twitter made it a rule that “misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals” was prohibited on its platform in 2018. Several people, including journalist Meghan Murphy, were banned, suspended, or blocked from the platform for statements like “Women aren’t men.” Dr. Ray Blanchard, who helped write the official psychological position on transgender identity, was temporarily blocked on May 12 for voicing his professional beliefs.

  24. Protecting former Rep. Katie Hill

  The Daily Mail took a story that Red State’s Jennifer Van Laar first broke about Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) and ran it with a link in the story that led to graphic images of the politician with one of her staffers. Twitter then allegedly blocked the Daily Mail’s story, claiming, according to the Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra, that “this link may be unsafe.”

  25. Protecting liberal journalists from “Learn to code”

  New York Post reporter Jon Levine alleged that some users were banned from Twitter for mocking recently laid-off journalists from liberal outlets Buzzfeed and HuffPost. Left-wing journalists once told working-class Americans to “learn to code” and adapt to a globalized economy. But now the shoe appears to be on the other foot, as some users tweeted the phrase “learn to code” at journalists who recently lost their jobs. The phrase was a response to journalists who told unemployed coal miners to switch their careers to tech, but journalists didn’t like it when it was used back on them. Some users reported a Twitter claim that users were banned for tweeting this phrase at journalists under the terms of service rules against “targeted harassment,” according to KnowYourMeme.

  What Twitter Has Failed to Enforce:

  26. Violence and doxxing from Antifa

  Smash Racism DC, a branch of Antifa, attacked Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house, reportedly threatened his wife, and doxed Carlson and his family on Twitter on November 8.

  Twitter did not listen to Fox News’ call for the doxxing tweets to be removed immediately. While the original Twitter posts no longer exist, the National Review’s Jack Crowe managed to document their contents. “Tucker Carlson has been spewing nonstop hate and lies about the migrant caravan. He also has close ties to white supremacists,” one tweet said. “Activists protested tonight at Carlson’s Washington DC area home. You can’t hide from those you hurt, Tucker.#KnockKnockTucker”

  “Racist scumbag, leave town,” another tweet exclaimed.

  27. Calls for violence against children

  A fake news story falsely accused Covington Catholic High School students of harassing a Native American activist. It outraged the internet since the video was later shown to edit out much of the encounter. The story was later corrected by some outlets, but the damage had been done. Twitter did not take down many of the threats or calls for violence against the students.

  28. Chinese propaganda and misinformation

  Twitter restrictions based on its COVID-19 rules haven’t been handled in a consistent manner. The Chinese Embassy in France uploaded an absurd, lego-based propaganda video on April 30. The Ambassade de Chine en France’s video “Once Upon a Virus…” featured numerous demonstrably untrue myths, acting as if the Chinese communist government and World Health Organization (“WHO”) have both been forthcoming about the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  It wasn’t fact-checked or removed.

  The video featured a back and forth dialogue between several lego figurines and gave a false chronology of what happened from month to month. A masked lego figurine representing the Chinese regime as a responsible leader amidst the coronavirus appeared to be the foil to the ignorant and irresponsible Statue of Liberty LEGO figurine that represented America. The Statue of Liberty figurine’s flaming torch curiously resembled Trump’s signature hairstyle.

  29. Terrorist recruiter’s video

  A video, tweeted out by a pro-Palestine account, depicted a terrorist shooting up an Israeli shopping mall. The cartoon depicted a young man watching a security guard at an Israeli mall. The flag of Israel was perched atop the building. Disguised as a security guard, the young man sits on a bench across from the Israeli mall and waits. He then walks up, kills the security guard with his own club, and runs into the mall, shooting at shoppers. The video then ends with a focus on Arabic script, which in English translates to “The Intifada is continuing.”

  30. Anti-Hong Kong protester propaganda

  Pinboard, the social bookmarking website run by developer Maciej Cegłowski, captured ads on Twitter from China Xinhua News which called for “a brake to be put on the blatant violence” in Hong Kong. The Twitter account for Pinboard noted “Xinhua, the agency buying these tweets, has literally referred to the Hong Kong protesters as ‘cockroaches.’”

  31. Noted anti-Semite Rev. Louis Farrakhan

  Noted anti-Semite Rev. Louis Farrakhan is still on Twitter and not fact-checked. Reclaim The Net observed that Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, was “temporarily kicked off of Twitter.” He was also “temporarily restricted” from Twitter from Jan. 3 up until mid-January, when his account was completely booted. Shortly thereafter, however, his account was reinstated, and a Twitter spokesperson reportedly told Reclaim The Net that “The account was caught by our spam filter in error and has been reinstated.”

  32. China’s accusations against the U.S. go unchecked

  Twitter allegedly censored ZeroHedge for theorizing about the origin of the coronavirus, citing Twitter’s Platform Manipulation policy, but since allowed what Buzzfeed called “Conspiracy Theories That The Coronavirus Didn’t Originate In China” to remain online. Spokesperson & Deputy Director General, Information Department, Foreign Ministry of China Lijian Zhao tweeted a piece headlined “COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US” at 9:02 p.m. on March 12. Later that day he speculated, “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan.”

  Twitter’s Investment in Leftist Ideology:

  33. Twitter partners with academics who called RNC speeches “hate”

  Twitter announced it was on a mission to rid its platform of “intolerance” and “incivility.” However, Twitter conveniently chose to partner with “third parties” that were incredibly skewed to the left.

  That group included three openly liberal “experts.” Dr. Patricia Rossini tweeted out from her account back in 2016: “summarizing tonight: hate hate hate WALL hate hate hate LGBTQ hate hate hate BAN IMMIGRATION hate hate hate LAW&ORDER #RNCinCLE.” She also praised former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for an interview she did, saying “I’m stunned by this interview with @HillaryClinton and her very straightforward evaluation of Trump’s presidency.”

  

• Baby Boomers Panic Hoard "Covid Campers" To Escape Big Cities As Second Wave Threats Emerge
  Baby Boomers Panic Hoard “Covid Campers” To Escape Big Cities As Second Wave Threats Emerge
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 20:10

  Americans are packing their bags, purchasing motor homes, and fleeing large cities as fears of a second coronavirus wave emerge. 

  Bloomberg reports floor traffic at Mike Regan’s two RV dealerships near Austin, Texas, jumped 30% compared with last May. 

  “Cooped-up Americans desperate to get out after months of lockdowns are dreaming of doing something—anything—that resembles a vacation. But a majority of them worry a second wave of the coronavirus is coming, and think politicians have pushed too fast to reopen. Unsurprisingly, when it comes to getting out of Dodge, the close-quarters of an airline cabin are a no-go,” said Bloomberg. 

  Regan said, “the minute the campgrounds opened on May 1, and the governor turned everyone loose, our business went through the roof.” He said sales at his Crestview dealerships slumped 50% in April, though expected to be significantly higher this month.

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  RV sales have been widely used as a recession marker (which is something we noted in August 2019): collapsing sales is the start of the downturn, and improving sales could suggest a trough and or upturn. However, as the economy dives into depression, not seen since the 1930s, RV sales are set to rise as the pandemic has frightened people away from crowded cities.

  Not mentioned in the report, another reason for increased RV sales could be due to 38 million people have lost their jobs in the last several months, some may not be able to make rent payments or afford their homes, have started to explore other options for cheaper living accommodations. 

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  Richard Curtin, a researcher at the University of Michigan who follows the RV industry, said the latest surge in RV buying shows consumers are still intact despite a “coronavirus recession.” However, he did not breakdown the sales in terms of demographics, which is likely to show baby boomers are the largest buyers – as the downturn has crushed millennials.

  Regan said many of the buyers in May were considered the first time, and their motives for purchasing were due to the ongoing pandemic.  

  Mike Rhoades, 73, of Kyle, Texas, is one of those first time RV buyers who would typically be on a cruise ship, but the pandemic has severely altered his way of life. He purchased a $30,000 trailer and is planning a several week trip along the Texas Gulf Coast.  

  Camping World Holdings Inc., think of it as a giant toy shop for baby boomers, said RV sales in the first-quarter beat analyst projections. The company shifted much of its sales online during lockdowns.  

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  Thor Motor Coach CEO Bob Martin said first-time buyers are buying entry-level and mid-range RVs. 

  “Every dealer that I talk to is just blown away by the reaction of people that have never even thought about an RV,” Martin said. “A lot of people are really going to look more at this lifestyle.”

  

• Snyder: A Society On The Brink Of Complete And Utter Chaos
  Snyder: A Society On The Brink Of Complete And Utter Chaos
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 19:50

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

  It is heartbreaking to watch the violence that is taking place on the streets of Minneapolis.  I have quite a few relatives that live in the Twin Cities area, and I have been there many times.  In the old days it always felt so peaceful, but not anymore.  The tragic death of George Floyd has unleashed a massive wave of anger, and the riots have made headlines all over the globe.  Originally, many had anticipated that Thursday night would not be as violent as Wednesday night was, but that was not a safe assumption to make.  Around 10 o’clock, protesters stormed into the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd Precinct building and set it on fire…

  Minneapolis is in the midst of a third night of unrest in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, with protesters taking over the police department’s 3rd Precinct building late Thursday night.

  The break-in happened at about 10 p.m., with helicopter footage showing a large fire burning near the main entrance.

  Police released a statement, saying in part, “in the interest of the safety of our personnel, the Minneapolis Police Department evacuated the 3rd Precinct of its staff. Protesters forcibly entered the building and have ignited several fires.”

  As the building burned, fireworks were being shot into the sky in celebration.

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  Of course the violence that we witnessed the previous evening was quite alarming as well.  By the end of the night, rioters had torched and looted a number of prominent retail stores…

  Shocking images Thursday morning showed the widespread destruction left overnight after stores including Wendy’s, Target, Walmart and Autozone were looted and some even set on fire.

  Mayor Frey pleaded for calm ahead of more expected protests this evening telling residents ‘we cannot let tragedy beget more tragedy.’

  Videos also showed what was reported to be an apartment building entirely engulfed by flames as rioters stood and watched and the fire department was nowhere to be seen.

  I don’t think that any of us will ever forget watching a Target store being looted, and at this point Target has decided to close all of their locations in the entire state “until further notice”.

  Overall, more than 50 buildings were burned down on Wednesday night, and one protester boldly declared that “the whole city can burn down”…

  “The whole city can burn down. They should all be out here protesting, not just people who care about black lives. Everybody. Burn it down. Make them pay. Maybe then they’ll understand,” one protester, Elicia S.—she declined to give her full last name—told The Daily Beast late Wednesday.

  “I read somewhere that you’re never gonna care until it hits your front door. We are here now, knocking in the front door,” demonstrator Becky Mathews added.

  Sadly, it isn’t just the rioters that are out of control.

  When George Floyd was arrested, it wasn’t for committing a violent crime.  He was accused of “allegedly trying to pay at a local deli with a counterfeit $20 bill”, and surveillance video from the scene does not support police claims that he resisted arrest.

  Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight entire minutes, and video of the moment when Floyd finally lost consciousness is absolutely horrifying.

  Of course this is far from an isolated incident.  According to the Los Angeles Times, approximately one out of every 1000 African-American males will die at the hands of our police…

  About 1 in 1,000 black men and boys in America can expect to die at the hands of police, according to a new analysis of deaths involving law enforcement officers. That makes them 2.5 times more likely than white men and boys to die during an encounter with cops.

  Look, I have friends that are current or former police officers, and I am so thankful for the good men and women that work so hard to protect all of us day in and day out.

  But the truth is that there are a lot of really bad apples out there, and troubling incidents are happening with increasing frequency all over the nation.

  For example, a young mother named Sara Walton Brady was recently arrested by the police in Idaho for simply taking her children to play in the park.  The following comes directly from a message that she sent to me, and she said that I could share it with all of you…

  On April 21, 2020 I saw a video on Facebook by other moms about a playdate at Kleiner Park scheduled for the afternoon. That video showed people at the park and the tape ripped down from the play structures. I decided to go with my two middle children and showed up about an hour late.

  I was only there 5-10 minutes when three officers from the Meridian Police Department arrived; one Sgt. And two officers. The Sgt., who I now know is Sgt. Fiscus, came marching onto the playground ordering all of the children and moms off of the bark and playground area while brusquely explaining that the city of Meridian the parks and they were closed by the order of the governor and the mayor.

  This obviously upset several of the moms there, including myself. I attempted to ask questions to the Sgt. About what authority he had to remove people from the park. During this attempted dialogue he continued to tell people that the playground area was closed and people needed to leave. However, he continually directed people to a concentrated area on the grass, which would have been a violation of the Idaho governor’s order of being closer than 6 feet. None of this made sense to me as I saw multiple other people recreating in the park – walking, fishing, and even people playing a game of basketball. It also didn’t make sense to me why we could be closer together on the grass and it was okay to violate that portion of this new found rule, but not on the park where the kids and the adults were much more spread out.

  As I continued to ask these questions the situation became more heated and eventually the officer told me I had five seconds to leave the park or he was going to arrest me. The officer then proceeded to count down to me, as I often do to my children when they are not listening. I told him “Fine! Arrest me for being in a park! Do it!” While turning around to his threat.

  I was placed inside the back of a very hot patrol car and left there for several minutes at which time I was eventually booked into jail for a misdemeanor trespassing charge. I was also accused of tearing the tape down on the playground that was had been placed there previously. I did not tear down any tape as it was down when I arrived. I was told that children had ripped it down.

  .Multiple other people were on the bark while I was arrested yet no one else was charged with trespassing, cited, or arrested I was also told that after I was transported to the jail that several people went back onto the bark (after tearing more tape down) and began playing on the playground and bark as the police watched. None of this was addressed by the police.

  My case has now been conflicted to the State of Idaho. This is very concerning to me that they have not dismissed the case and they have unlimited resources to make an example of me. It’s also concerning to me that while people are losing their jobs and businesses’ that the State would use hard earned taxpayer money to waste on a mom who was at a park with her kids and try to make an example of me.

  Please help me raise funds for legal fees to fight the State of Idaho. I am told that it could cost anywhere from $30,000-$50,000. You can go to supportsarabrady.com.

  Sincerely,
  Sara Walton Brady

  I was friends with Sara Walton Brady long before this incident occurred, and I can tell you that she is a rock solid citizen.

  In fact, Idaho would not be in the giant mess that it is today if a lot more patriots like her lived in the state.

  Unfortunately, the truth is that the whole country is a giant mess, and what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning.

  Our entire society is on the brink of a complete and utter meltdown, and I expect that the upcoming election will bring tensions that have been simmering all over the nation to a boiling point.

  There is a reason why so many people are looking to move out of our major cities right now.  America is literally in the process of coming apart at the seams, and there will be a lot more rioting, looting and civil unrest in the days ahead.

  

• 'Nothing Improper, And FBI Knew It': Flynn Transcripts Released
  ‘Nothing Improper, And FBI Knew It’: Flynn Transcripts Released
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 19:30

  Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released the transcripts between then-incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kisliak, which revealed that Flynn asked Russia to take “reciprocal” against sanctions levied by the Obama administration over interference in the 2016 US election.

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  “I ask Russia to do is to not, if anything, I know you have to have some sort of action, to only make it reciprocal; don’t go any further than you have to because I don’t want us to get into something that have to escalate tit-for-tat,” Flynn told Kisyak.

  12/23/16 – Flynn relays his goals about the Russia/US relationship.

  Flynn: “We will not achieve stability in the Middle East without working with each other against this radical Islamist crowd.”

  It was never about collusion. pic.twitter.com/xN3twZYa6H

  — Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) May 29, 2020

  Despite clear evidence to the contrary, Former FBI agent Peter Strzok used that conversation as a basis to continue his investigation into whether Flynn was a potential Russian agent, according to recently unsealed court documents. The agency used the call as leverage to try to get the retired general to admit to a violation of the Logan Act – an obscure old law nearly a quarter-century old which prohibits private citizens from interfering in diplomacy (which, as it turns out, is standard practice among members of transitioning administrations).

  FBI agent Joe Pientka, who interviewed Flynn with agent Strzok, wrote in his interview notes that he did not believe Flynn was lying to them during the interview – while other recently unsealed notes revealed that the FBI considered a perjury trap against Flynn to “get him fired.”

  If there was a preexisting improper relationship between the Trump campaign and Russia, @GenFlynn would never have needed an official call with Kislyak to prevent the disaster the Obama admin was creating.

  It’s common sense if you’re an honest broker.

  — John ‘Murder Hornet’ Cardillo (@johncardillo) May 29, 2020

  ‘Scandal beyond Measure’: @TomFitton says transcripts of the Flynn – Kislyak calls further prove General Flynn’s innocence and the deep state’s deception. #AmericaFirst #MAGA #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/99qggR1uDp

  — Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) May 29, 2020

  After the FBI’s malfeasance came to light, the DOJ moved to drop the case against Flynn – which US District Judge Emmet Sullivan has refused to do – instead asking a retired federal judge, John Gleeson, to provide legal arguments as to whether Sullivan should hold Flynn in criminal contempt for pleading guilty to FBI agents – which he now says he did not do.

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  Following the release of the transcripts, Sen. Grassley said in a statement: “Lt. General Flynn, his legal team, the judge and the American people can now see with their own eyes – for the first time – that all of the innuendo about Lt. General Flynn this whole time was totally bunk. There was nothing improper about his call, and the FBI knew it.“

  The transcripts show that Flynn was acting in his country’s best interests, and his only crime was bruising the fragile ego of the Obama team and their pathetic foreign policy https://t.co/P3nuifreUI

  — Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) May 29, 2020

  Earlier Friday, DNI John Ratcliffe declassified the transcripts and released them to Congress. See below:

  

• As Minneapolis Burns, Armed Citizens Deter Rioters & Looters Without Firing A Shot
  As Minneapolis Burns, Armed Citizens Deter Rioters & Looters Without Firing A Shot
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 19:10

  Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

  The only thing between several businesses and a bunch of people rioting is a couple of unnamed armed citizens.

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  As all hell breaks loose in Minneapolis over the lack of action taken against a police officer who killed a citizen on video, some self-titled “free Americans” helped store owners protect their property. They heard that the store owners had boarded up windows and were standing guard with machetes, and they went to help.

  But if you think the men were there because they disagreed with the protests, you’d be incorrect. In a statement to Max Nesterak, a reporter for the Minnesota Reformer, the men said:

  “Basically you see the records that cops keep,” one man told Nesterak in a now-viral video posted to Twitter. “And cops are a lot less likely to try and tread on people’s rights when there’s other armed Americans with them. So I figured it’s about damn time that some heavily armed rednecks stood with fellow citizens.”

  “It turns out these guys are out here with machetes and shattered windows trying to keep looters out of the businesses ’cause cops can’t get in here,” one man said. “So I figured before there were cops, there were just Americans, so here we are.”

  “Bottom line, justice for Floyd and I hope they stop looting at some point. If there were more of us we could go stop them from looting, but it’s just us four,” said the man on the right.

  “We definitely don’t agree with the looting, but we agree with the cause of the protests,” the other man said. (source)

  Watch the interview here:

  These two men say they support the protests but not the riots and are helping protect a tobacco store owner from looting
  pic.twitter.com/PDn2Jd8iEB

  — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 28, 2020

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  As of today, the good Samaritans are still unidentified.

  This isn’t the first time armed citizens protected businesses during times of unrest.

  This is not the first time that armed citizens have protected property during riots.

  During the Ferguson riots in 2015, St. Louis Ink Tattoo Studio and County Guns remained unscathed as businesses around them burned or were looted, due to the protection of armed citizens.

  After hearing of the roving bands of looters, Mike Gutierrez knew he had to protect his tattoo shop. He brought a posse with him, including Adam Weinstein, owner of County Guns, who was acutely worried about criminals getting their hands on his merchandise.

  “We didn’t want them coming in here and then running around with a bunch of free guns,” Weinstein told Daily RFT when we arrive at the store around 12:30 a.m. this morning. Weinstein was outfitted with an assault rifle, pistol and tactical vest. Gutierrez cradled his own rifle in his hands. (source)

  And who can forget the videos of Korean-American store owners in Los Angeles protecting their businesses with a variety of firearms as angry mobs besieged the area during the LA Riots of 1992?

  This should serve as a reminder of why citizens need guns

  After the on-camera death of George Floyd, it was a given that unrest would ensue, particularly when the police officer who killed him and the three who stood by and prevented citizens from coming to Floyd’s aid were merely fired and not arrested.

  If you’re faced with an angry mob, you’re going to want as much force equalization as possible. In all the cases above, no armed citizens shot anyone. Their presence and willingness to defend their property served as a sufficient deterrent, as is often the case. In nearly every situation, people rioting are going to choose targets that aren’t likely to kill them. And this doesn’t just hold true for civil unrest – a gun in the hands of a determined person has deterred countless crimes – and I speak from experience.

  You can’t count on the police to save you during times like this – they’re busy and likely couldn’t get through the crowds anyway. You’re completely on your own. And at some point during prolonged turmoil, the police and military will finally throw their hands up in the air, give up, and go home to protect their own families,

  The only person you can rely on to protect your family is yourself.

  The only person you can truly rely on during scenarios like this is yourself.

  While I’m always going to recommend first to not be there during times of unrest, if you are there and you missed the window to leave during a riot, you’re the only game in town when it comes to the safety of your home, your livelihood, and your loved ones.

  Take a long hard look at the threats you face during civil unrest. Wherever you live, whatever your situation, you need to plan as though 911 does not exist. Whether riots are occurring in the streets or not, in the seconds during which the lives of your family hang in the balance, you are completely on your own.

  Sometimes the mob just wants to set your home or business on fire. But In other situations, it won’t stop with the destruction of your property. You may have to defend your home. And for this, you must be armed. No amount of hand-to-hand self-defense training will deter an angry mob but staring down the barrel of your firearm just might. Here’s more information about being prepared to survive civil unrest.

  Being willing to protect your family is not an endorsement of police brutality. I know that I am personally disgusted by the action that set off this entire chain of events. However, when the angry crowds are on your street, it’s no longer about the initial incident. People aren’t thinking rationally when it has escalated this far.

  Being armed is a matter of survival in situations where the normal rules of society have completely broken down.

  I’m sure I’ll receive another barrage of email wishing me and my children dead by our own guns. Blah, blah, blah. It always amazes me how people who swear vehemently that they’re against violence can send me those letters that fervently and creatively hope for our gruesome murders.

  Watching the effectiveness of firearms in the hands of people like the ones mentioned in this article to deter violence – not commit more of it – makes me even more determined to remain prepared to protect myself and my family.

  What about you?

  

• Chicago's Eurodollar Open Outcry Pits Are Fighting For Their Lives To Remain Open Post-Pandemic
  Chicago’s Eurodollar Open Outcry Pits Are Fighting For Their Lives To Remain Open Post-Pandemic
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 18:50

  The CME eurodollar trading pit – long been facing the threat of extinction as Skynet takes over trading – could finally be facing a perfect storm of headwinds in the coronavirus pandemic.

  The pits are arguably the worst place on the face of the Earth to be during a global pandemic is which being spread by droplets. Traders crowd shoulder to shoulder and scream at the top of their lungs, often breathing and sweating on one another, to execute trades. 

  But in the Eurodollar options pit, traders seem to think they’ll eventually be back, according to Bloomberg. Traders there feel like they can perform better than algorithms and have an advantage on the floor that computers don’t have.

  CME member Pete Kosanovich said: “When it gets busy, there is still a buzz, you can feel things happening. When you hear stuff happen in other pits, it’s a lot like being at Augusta and hearing the ‘Tiger roar.’ If you hear something happen in Treasury options, you can get ready for something to happen in eurodollar options.”

  The floor closed abruptly on March 13 alongside of other trading floor operators, like ICE and CBOE. 

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  Others, who favor electronic trading, think the time is right to finally do away with floor trading. Christian Hauff, CEO of Quantitative Brokers, which sells trading algorithms for U.S. Treasury securities and Treasury futures said: “This is the opportunity to not look back but move forward as an industry.”

  Those in the pit argue that the nature of the product keeps open outcriers in the game. The futures debuted in 1981 as a way to speculate on interest rates paid on dollar deposits overseas. They are the most traded interest rate derivative as of last year, with a daily average volume of about 2.7 million contracts in 2019. 

  In the pit, trades are often structured as spreads, straddles or butterflies – which traders argue gives humans an advantage, due to the large number of possible trade combinations. Kosanovich, for example, has brokered trades with as many as 16 legs. He says he has seen trades with as many as 24. 

  He said: “It seems like it should be easy to trade these complicated multi-legged strategies, but it’s just not. Brokers’ fiduciary responsibility as members is to get the best price for the end user.”

  Before the shut down, the pit accounted for about half of the daily average volume in eurodollar options. But re-opening – given the physical demands of open outcry trading – is going to be tough. This means that the fate of the pit, perhaps for the long-term, is going to fall to the CME Group. Executives have said they wanted to re-open three weeks after the state lifts its stay-at-home order.

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  Market makers and floor brokers would have to sign a waiver to acknowledge they are working at their own risk. CME Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said on an April earnings call that keeping the floor open doesn’t cost much and that he intended to abide by the rules that as long as the floor was more than 30% of trading volume, he’d keep it open. 

  The question of whether or not people will have adapted to electronic trading by the time CME re-opens the pit remains to be seen. 

  Thomas Fitch, founder and CEO of RVAssets, which supplies trading algorithms for eurodollar and Treasury options, said: “Nobody was prepared to go to 100% electronic, but the market did it with no problem whatsoever.” 

  Chicago-based futures and options broker Albert Marquez concluded: “Under normal conditions, I would expect that most end-users would want the pit back. It’s far more efficient and markets are tighter. That being said, it’s not exactly the best time for eurodollar options with rates where they are.”

  

• "It Felt Like An Earthquake": SpaceX Prototype Starship Blows Up In Massive Explosion Day Ahead Of Manned Launch
  “It Felt Like An Earthquake”: SpaceX Prototype Starship Blows Up In Massive Explosion Day Ahead Of Manned Launch
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Fri, 05/29/2020 – 18:28

  In a horribly spectacular failure with the added bad timing of coming almost exactly 24 hours ahead of SpaceX and NASA’s rescheduled attempt to make history by launching two astronauts into Earth’s orbit as part of work on the Commercial Crew program, set for 3:22 pm ET Saturday weather permitting, the Raptor engine in SpaceX’s Starship SN4 prototype blew up on its test stand in Boca Chica, Texas.

  “SpaceX just experienced the biggest explosion yet at its Texas site, where it’s testing prototypes for a Mars rocket,” The Atlantic’s Marina Koren reported Friday afternoon.

  “A resident who lives nearby — just 2 miles away — said it felt like an earthquake,” she added. Koren noted that at this point it doesn’t appear anyone in the surrounding community was hurt in the massive blast which shook the area for miles. 

  Elon, your rocket just blew up. pic.twitter.com/EZAVN4cVCd

  — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) May 29, 2020

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  The explosion, which involved a bright fireball ripping high into the air with rocket debris flying, occurred about two minutes after the engine test fire run had been completed.

  It happened at 1:49 central time, and set off a flurry of commentary over the safety of tomorrow’s launch with humans carried to space. 

  How anyone can lack confidence in Tesla con man Elon Musk, is beyond me… Wikipedia says he is an «aircraft engineer», (like Elizabeth Holmes is a doctor) ffs, if you can’t trust Elon or the internet, then who can you really trust?$TSLAQ?pic.twitter.com/sw8nJ8CbtR SN4
  CC @NASA

  — Thomas Hansen (@tweetmyinbox) May 29, 2020

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  The test at first appeared successful but then it ruptured in a spectacular fiery explosion.

  TechCrunch brings us some of the following details of the prototype explosion as follows: 

  This was a test in the development of Starship, a new spacecraft that SpaceX has been developing in Boca Chica. Eventually, the company hopes to use it to replace its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket, but Starship is still very early in its development phase, whereas those vehicles are flight-proven, multiple times over.

  SpaceX had just secured FAA approval to fly its Starship prototype for short, suborbital test flights. The goal was to fly this SN4 prototype for short distances following static fire testing, but that clearly won’t be possible now, as the vehicle appears to have been completely destroyed in the explosion following Friday’s test…

  Prior stress tests of Starship prototypes have ended in similar disaster as well, but this one comes at a moment national attention has been glued to the NASA-SpaceX partnership given the manned Crew Dragon launch Saturday, though weather is still not looking ideal at this point.

  When you realize your wallet was on the rocket pic.twitter.com/p2DdhubJoS

  — Harrison (@harriweinreb) May 29, 2020

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  Though a prototype and not the same rocket that will be used tomorrow, it can’t be at all comforting to be a SpaceX/NASA astronaut scheduled for lift off tomorrow, as many have already observed. 

  Imagine being a SpaceX/NASA astronaut that’s scheduled for lift off tomorrow and watching this happen today. That’s gotta be a different kind of anxiety.

  (this is a prototype rocket and not the one in use tomorrow, but still 🥴) pic.twitter.com/bdmROuNETN

  — Pablo Escobarner (blue check) (@PabloEscobarner) May 29, 2020

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  It no doubt takes the anxiety over tomorrow’s launch to a different kind of level.

  * * *

  Post-explosion live feed:

  

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